The Might of Color
by akaiichigo
Summary: Everyone tries to convince Hinata to pick a favorite color, as each color symbolizes different strengths and fallacies.


"The Might of Color"

Everyone tries to convince Hinata to pick a favorite color, as each color symbolizes different strengths and fallacies.

_Naruto_ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

-

The Forest A2 Restoration Committee, which was unofficially dubbed the 'Scrap Pack' by Kiba and Naruto, were spread around the vast, charred land.

Every one of the Scrap Pack had non-tearing bags in their hands, and some wore clothing appropriate to their activity: boots, thick gloves, goggles, and face masks for safety measures.

Kakashi-sensei, for the protection of his already infamous mask, had placed a clean white medical mask over the other. Some marveled at his breathing capabilities. It must be sweaty and moist there, on his face, especially when the midday sun was blaring down through the little foliage the forest was casting. Taking note of the heat, he takes an icy water bottle, uncaps it with a flick of the wrist, and swigs down two gulps, leaving the bottle already half gone.

Sighs of disappointment were exhaled around Forest A2. Kakashi-sensei's body was turned away when he pulled his mask down to drink his refreshment, making his naked back the only view he'd exposed to the surrounding shinobi. No no-masked-face today. At least, for the women, he was shirtless.

A few paces over, Kiba was muttering to himself as he stuffed his bag full of burnt wood, with Naruto beside him doing the same with a grin. "What are you smiling about?"

Naruto let out a scratchy chuckle, "Heh, I'm just glad."

"Psh. Glad that we're in mandatory burnt scrap packing?"

"Nooo," he elongated the word as he held up his plastic bag to show Kiba. "When'ver I end up with these restoration/cleaning missions I always get so mad when my bag tears. And now the Old Lady recalled with these non-tearables, isn't that great?" Naruto's grin grew, "I don't get mad anymore, I'm glad!"

Kiba's nose twitched, "Right."

Naruto twisted the top and set his full bag down in a pile and looked about his fellow shinobi and friends around the area. He let out a tired huff and said, "Looks so sad, though, huh? So black and depressing."

"Yeah, fire does that to a forest. So ugly and desolate."

Naruto sniggered, "Like the one who started all this."

Kiba's eyes lit up and he smirked as both boys turned their heads towards the middle of the sectioned forest. He wasn't too far, so he heard what had just been said.

"Why'd you try to burn the training ground down, huh, teme!" Naruto unnecessarily pointed at him.

Sasuke purposefully ignored them and continued shoveling black ash into a heap before scooping and placing them into a bag.

"Is this how Uchihas do makeovers?" Kiba piped up. "Itachi-sempai looks great with receding hairline," a snort and a snigger from both boys, "and the unibrow looks great on you!"

The two exploded in laughter and a low growl was eminent as Sasuke sent them dark daggers of doom.

"Oh no, Sasuke," Naruto let out as he held his stomach in one arm and wiped a tear from his eye with the other; he was liking such reaction from him. "Such black personality suits you!"

The Uchiha was instantly-temporarily forgotten as pink and blond covered Kiba and Naruto's eyesight.

"Sasuke's personality isn't black!" Ino huffed.

Sakura, with her arms crossed, agreed, "Yeah, he more likely has a red personality!"

Kiba scowled at the interruption. He was just starting to have fun ever since the restoration mission started this morning, and now these girls were spurting nonsense, "The hell?"

The two girls turned to each other, "Red. Red like fire!"

Ino nodded, "And passion, and strength!" Both she and Sakura started walking back towards their stations, talking about how '_hot_' the color red just is, and seemingly forgetting their task at defending Sasuke from those two loud, male idiots who were _also_ left forgotten.

Sakura pulled some stray strands away from her face as she readjusted her short ponytail. "I personally like pink," she grinned. "Y'know, it compliments red. It's like the feminine red; so perfect for Sasuke."

Ino rolled her eyes. Biased. "Well, I really like the color yellow. It's light and enthusiastic. Plus, it's a happy color; it'll make Sasuke happy," she sniffed proudly as she picked up her shovel.

Sakura also took hold of her shovel and refrained from commenting on her best friend's bias choice of color. She then turns to the girl working diligently behind them and called out, "Oi, Hinata. What's your favorite color?"

The girl stopped her work and faced Sakura and Ino, she looked and both girls and then her eyes dropped to the ground. "I don't have a favorite color," she said slowly.

Sakura and Ino stared at the girl in front of them. Hinata's voice was muffled behind the thick fabric of her face mask and she was twiddling her fingers beneath thick and oversized working gloves. She finally looked up at the two girls as she pulled her mask down so she could speak to them properly.

Their shocked faces from finding out that their friend had no favorite color was instantly gone when their competitive wiles came about and each girl tried to convince that one of their favorite colors was better than the other.

"Pink, Hinata, pink! It's cute and girly and--"

"No way. Yellow—no, white is more like Hinata! It's clean, and it's pure—"

"No," a deep voice interrupted. "White is an irony in itself. White _is _pure. But white is winter. And winter is death."

The girls looked at the newcomer and shivered at Neji's dramatic cold stare.

TenTen came over and tugged at Neji's ponytail, "Only your winter-cold personality causes death, Neji!"

"Orange!" Naruto and Kiba walked over, curious as to what's going on since they were left ignored. "Or pink!" Sakura gave him a glare and he held a hand out defensively, "No, I meant pink like the swirl of a naruto!"

Kiba nudged Hinata in the shoulder, "What about copper-red, hm, Hina?"

Chouji came strolling by from another snack break and decided to join in on the color argument and proudly said, "Brown."

Sakura wrinkled her nose and disgust and asked, "Brown, why brown? That's so muddy and dirty."

"No, like barbeque sauce," and after that the small group stared at him dead panned.

As Chouji walked away, Shikamaru came up behind him and commented, "What he meant to say is that it's an earth tone." His voice was low and bored, "Ya know, natural."

Hinata blushed furiously as Shikamaru stepped close to her and allowed his fingers to feel the texture of the hair that framed her face. "Hm," he breathed lightly, "but mysterious indigo is more like it."

Neji bristled at Nara's closeness to his Hinata-sama.

"Gray."

The alluring bass of a voice reverberated around the group, causing everyone to pause a bit to relish and let it sink in. Everyone. Until Kiba's palm shot out and smacked Shino dead on the side of his head, yelling, "Gray is unsuitable for her, weren't you thinking!"

Sai stepped over and observed Hinata, "If I were to paint her portrait I'd use standard black ink on white pristine parchment. Black and white for contrast and abstract. Perfect for her enigmatic dull qualit--"

Sakura and TenTen gasped as Ino clutched Hinata tightly, trying to cover her poor ears, "Hinata is not dull!"

"That is not what I meant," Sai calmly told them and silently watched as Sasuke passed him to walk over towards Hinata.

Hinata gulped as she felt her face and neck heat up when Sasuke loomed over her and stoop down so his eyes would be leveled with hers, almost nose to nose. She could see his charred left eyebrow; she smiled inwardly when she noticed little hairs growing back.

Sasuke and Itachi-sempai liked to train a lot, but yesterday's session had gone awry, which caused Forest A2 to be burned down. And Sasuke was left with the blame of all the mess and dead plants.

"Lavender," he observed quietly, and was instantly pulled away when Neji grabbed his shoulder with a glare.

Naruto let out a loud 'heehee.' "Doesn't that mean Neji has those girly colored eyes, too?"

Neji whipped around, letting go of Sasuke to jab Naruto hard on the sternum, saying menacingly, "Lavender is a shade of purple. And purple has been signifying quality, wealth, _power_, and _royalty_ for centuries. Do not defile the true meaning of the eye color of the Hyuugas."

Different opinions were being thrown this way and that. As the arguing voices rose, Hinata was left forgotten at the center of the whole Forrest A2 cleaning party who were surrounding her like a giant donut.

"Lovely, Hinata!"

In a flash and flurry, Hinata was pulled away by warm hands on her gloves. She spun around like in a dance until she was securely away from the arguing group, her gloved hands lightly landing on a green-clad chest.

She looked up and smiled lightly at the kind and welcoming grin of her rescuer, "Thank you, Lee."

Lee made a sweeping bow, "No problem, Shining Light!" He grabbed her shoulders and looked at her in a rather dramatic seriousness, "Hinata, if I may suggest a color for you to favor."

Oh, no, not him too? Hinata thought. But before she could refuse the suggestion, Lee grabbed one gloved hand of hers into his and pulled her further away from the group and over and under some burnt trees until they came upon a section of Forest A2 that has not been touched and cleaned yet. It was a very sad sight. Against the light blue sky, the trees were bare and charred, and the forest floor was a mess of debris, dirt, and ash. Still holding her hand, Lee searched a series of patchwork on the ground here and there.

"At this distance from the stray jutsu Sasuke-san had made, the fire couldn't reach the ground anymore. The horrible mess down on this ground is just remnants from the trees above," Lee was telling her quite informatively, and Hinata was listening with intrigue. "But even the plants that live down here cannot live when they're being suffocated by this thick ash of unfortune!"

Lee let go of her hand and jogged over to a light patch of ash. Before Hinata could question what he's doing, Lee fell into a fighting stance and made a low sweep of his leg towards an invisible enemy. His leg swung around lowly and picked up pace until a slight gust of a tornado blew past her. When she felt it safe, Hinata opened here eyes and found Lee gesturing her to come over.

When she came close, Lee took her hand again and pulled her down onto the ground. Hinata gasped when she saw little stems with tiny round leaves peeking out from a small layer of ash.

"These plants survived," Hinata whispered with awe. Lee grinned at the shine of her eyes and watched as she carefully swept some ash away from the tiny plants with her still-gloved hands.

"Hinata-hime, these plants represent perseverance through life: they still bud with determined greenery even when clouded by dark forces!"

Hinata smiled at this, she had been worried about the nature life of the forest ever since arriving at training ground Forest A2 this morning. She didn't blame Sasuke like the other boys had joked about, but she was still saddened at what damage fire can do.

"In the dark world of shinobi we live in, we need great balance. With water and earth we can survive, but fire is still helpful to restore the balance of life and death. But the mighty flourish of green plants are often forgotten as the peacemaker in that balance!" Tears started to appear in his eyes as he was in a roll in his speech, "Plants grow, live, and die with strength. It is the essence of the springtime of youth, infinitely!"

A comfortable silence settled between them, which was odd because nothing was comfortable after a loud dialogue from Lee. But it was Hinata Lee was with, so all is alright.

"Green is a beautiful color," Hinata then smiled delightfully and looked up to her friend. "It is the color of a healthy life."

Just then they heard the shuffling footsteps of their forgotten group of friends as they entered the clearing where they were. Someone asked, "What're you guys doing here?" But Lee was too preoccupied by the shine of appreciation in Hinata's eyes and he grabbed a gloved hand in both of his and declared loudly:

"Yes, Fair Princess! That is the might of the color green!"

Back at the cleaning sight, Kakashi sets another finished bottle of water down on the ground. He turns around, masks pulled down onto his neck, "Hm? Where'd everyone go?"

-

Thanks for reading, folks. Why I included subplots into this story, I have no idea. This is for a DateMe April contest. Challenge: Green Pastures, Pairing of the month: LeeHina.

A comment from you for this story would be appreciated, thanks :)

Finally edited... but still with several run-on sentences. :(


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